p.r.p. interviews intriguing stories. that. visit. americans. from the deadly plane crash of a. step by step. on the russian public. twenty twelve.

twenty four seven this is r.t. . trying to pull us back from the brink of the fiscal cliff couldn't get much closer to the wire in a few hours time americans will be hit hard by billions of dollars of tax hikes and spending cuts. come into effect on tuesday but republicans and democrats just can't agree on how to avert it and time is rapidly running out washington correspondent. the u.s. congress created this cliff situation when they failed to agree on a budget that would help the country reduce its deficit and its you monger's debt and what they did was what they usually do they put off those important decisions until a certain deadline that deadline is now so they came up with this scary word cliff to create lots of drama around which would be the ordinary maybe somewhat boring

working process of any congress or parliament that is to agree on a budget the need to deadlines so the cliff which actually describes the mode in which the congress is working their inability to make decisions until the very very last minute the cliff that u.s. lawmakers have artificially created could become very real for the american people the vast majority of them over one thousand government programs would be cut it would hit the unemployed very hard they would stop getting unemployment benefits there would be other automatic cuts and tax hikes that would mostly affect those who are financially insecure but everyone knows even if the lawmakers don't meet the january first deadline they can pass measures retroactively and at the end of the day they will decide something but congress seems to love the drama of the whole cliff situation they have all the attention in the world and literally the whole world the media of course help them hype it up with the countdown they

started two months ago and while politicians here are enjoying all that attention turning last minute trick scoring political points the hype around the scary word cliff is already hurting the economy experts say it's affecting business and consumer confidence if wall street is any indicator stocks have been falling for a fifth straight day on friday they called it a fiscal cliff slide other markets are reaching signals of certainty coming from the u.s. oil prices have soared in the asian markets ahead of a last minute effort in washington to reach a deal on fiscal cliff that's what you read in the news so this whole charade in washington could have implications on many less. which some call a product of u.s. lawmakers imagination could become a self-fulfilling prophecy while congress has trouble sorting out a deal to prevent american slipping into a tax black hole some agreements just seem to breeze through as china graph from

want to wait news explains what can the united states of america this is where we govern by crisis we don't have representatives in washington d.c. we have political prostitutes that will go before a camera and say that anything that they have to say is to keep this massive government rolling and you can make sexual interest influence a washington d.c. whore that when the cameras are on you know they're on the red team they're going out there saying it's the welfare folks as well that's the people on food stamps or the people in extended unemployment benefits if they're on the blue team they're coming out and trying to get their base fired up that it's all about their corporate interests and that this is why we can't come up with you but isn't it me is it when the cameras are off and it's time to pass a trillion dollar nearly trillion dollar cost defense bill they have no problem whatsoever coming to coming together and holding hands to put that kind of a deal together i think ultimately the hammer is going to fall on the people of this country it is called austerity nobody in washington d.c.

wants to own up to that austerity but eventually it's coming to this country. crash investigators have ruled the condition of the runway as a cause for saturday's deadly plane tragedy but one of the busiest airports the red wings of the jet skidded off the runway and into the embankment over a major highway five people who were on board have died while the other three are still fighting for their lives. and looks at how the disaster unfolded the twenty ninth of december the last working day of two thousand and twelve in russia. business is what he's got until the next year. jump into their cars and escape the busy capital. highway heads to the western region where most of the luxury estates and country houses are located traffic jams are common this time of the day and this time of the year but want to lock the road is almost.

passengers come out of the car to see what the sound was think sex to see anything but not this. just minutes before that and similar to all for what number ninety six i think is little too i told you it was from the czech republic the plane touches down but can't talk as three to one with the wrong way they had but still the airline is moving too fast think fear is true at that moment most likely knows already they will not make it the jets reaches the end of the runway runs into the fans but still continues moving it finally stops after overrunning the asteroid by four hundred meters the plane breaks into three parts and tail is lying over the whole year the road people can easily see its number or

a fix for four seven the middle paul just bog misses away the cockpit already partially damaged after the crash with a science falls right at the edge of the highway it's a miracle indeed the road is empty at that time this is a ten lane highway the wreckage is only on one of the lanes traffic continues on at least three here even after the tragedy is passing by slowing down to see what happens they notice and left lane called street light on the road the very road they usually drive every friday and everybody sings as that moment was eve eyes have call minutes earlier or was eve i have been on that airplane people come out of their cars and try to help out those in the cockpit how ready that. weather conditions technical failure and pilot error are among the investigators

main causes of the incident was most likely a combination of reasons behind a fatal crash however a plane hitting a busy highway in one of europe's biggest cities could have last a much more devastating trail of destruction there wasn't enough luck for everyone on that saturday evening. national party. of expert opinion on what may have caused the crash as well as details about the plane itself had to r.t. dot com. the end of the year in britain also means plowing through tax return forms before the penalty deadline many people though are already being penalized in the pocket simply by asking for help in filling out the forms as artie's put a border. your annual tax return persis that many adults find utterly daunting and perplexing luckily for the british public the tax man has a whole array of telephone helplines to help and advise people on how to fill in

the piles of forms needed for it getting through to someone might be a bit of a problem though britain is spending watchdog says that last year some twenty million phone calls went on answered by the government tax office and of those lucky enough to get through between the months of april and september over six million people had to wait for over ten minutes just to get an answer from someone and i've decided to give him revenue and customs premium priced phone line a call to find out how long it would take me to get through to them. i've spent over three and a half minutes waiting for someone to pick up the phone. last year customer spent an estimated thirty three million pounds in call charges just waiting to get through to somebody at the tax department exposing what critics call

a shameful level of service him revenue and customs have released a statement saying that they've lowered the cost of calls to one of their premium phone lines the most popular one they also say that they're aware that they weren't able to deliver the standard of service that they're committed to in the past however they're now answering over ninety percent of the calls that are made to them but ultimately critics say that it's the complicated u.k. tax code that spans over seventeen thousand pages the british citizens find it so hard to get their head around and it's the telephone providers that are responsible for the helplines that it cashing in on all the tax confusion. well that with the new year just around the corner for us here in moscow we've prepared a special farewell to twenty twelve on o.t. . missile special coverage with live broadcasts from several countries so spectacular images of the festivities and some forecasts of what to expect in twenty thirteen to come before midnight here in moscow next we recap the major

events of the outgoing year after the break. so how much does it take to get into russian politics how many hours of hard work and how many patriotic deeds does it take to become one of the people who make the decisions and the world's largest country well i'll tell you how much it takes exactly seven point five million euros russia's federal investigative committee has a stablish that allegedly hey of and constantine should show of from fair russia and the commies prospectively promised for a fee to get a businessman on to their party's electoral lists giving him a spot in the lower house of the duma the investigators have forwarded the state duma an official request to strip the two m.p.'s of their parliamentary immunity and you're darn right they better street have their parliamentary immunity stripped

i mean what's worse than government corruption some people in the government being so corrupt they can actually sell the government itself to someone for a fee so positions of parliament corruption on this high of a level needs to be punished severely breaking rocks in siberia or worse sounds pretty good to me tolerating flagrant corruption does not a great civilization make but that's just my opinion. something. lies beneath. thousands of meters of. control. for many. but dangerous even to

those who keep it to a distance. you're watching on t.v. to me. it's already twenty some parts of the world including australia japan and china and four of russia's nine times all sort of ration is on full swing in russia's far eastern parts of siberia the rest of the country catching up in the coming hours as the world gradually welcomes in the new year we know now at the events which twenty twelve will be remembered. that's. fine

now what critics have to point it while has reached its and along with the ny encounter. but it looked more like this year a decade of war is a. good thing here. well we're still here and when it comes down to it the world not only didn't end but very little changed in twenty twelve we have the same challenges facing the globe the same conflicts preventing peace the same policies hampering solutions and many of the same people in power as we come into twenty thirteen so what will twenty twelve be remembered for let's take a look back. for some in gaza their world did and when israel launched

a short but deadly campaign in response to rockets fired by hamas after one of their leaders was assassinated u.s. solidly backed israel but critics claim the use of disproportionate force has become too common a practice for the israeli defense force journalists also being targeted and children becoming casualties it has the same policy if you like as the united states with regard to collateral damage that it's happy to injure dozens of palestinian men women and children as long as they can kill one person who might have helped fire a rocket into israel shortly after a cease fire palestine celebrated gaining u.n. nonmember status but it's still a long way from statehood as is the region from a peaceful two state solution dream israel and palestine this was conflict continues to rage in neighboring syria you know that trouble possibly stay running his country. he has to go assad must go but charlotte said the demands and

predictions that syria's president would fall in twenty trials went on for a pilgrimage if you had sat down for an exclusive interview with r t well into the year insisting he would not give up as the push for regime change continued in terror reigned in his country of i'm not popular i wasn't me but with the with the twenty other countries i'm sick and i mean. i may be in syria and i have to be visited but it's going to be deemed everything from civil war to sectarian fighting to terrorism to genocide syria stay the center of a media war through out twenty twelve with unconfirmed atrocities on both sides haunting the web and only one side taking the brunt of the blame for assad is crazy he's a brutal dictator reese killing his own people this is the same narrative that we've heard about gadhafi. but we didn't hear much about libya in two thousand and twelve on most networks or from western officials not until the aftermath of regime change

there and the terror that ensued went too far u.s. ambassador and embassy staff were killed in benghazi in september the most significant event two thousand and twelve is the failure of nato to follow up on its own its libyan momentum to create a force regime change through proxy. mercenaries in syria and the fact that russia and china and iran stood firm on. the entire time table that nato at that in mind iran this destabilization. and now the entire arab spring scenario is. it's not disintegrate it's becoming a nightmare one that spread to western allies in the region like bahrain for mass protest arrest and even death have been provoked much global media coverage or any push for democracy. instead provocations like the film the innocence of

a muslim made headlines and incited outrage across the arab world funded in the u.s. and considered highly offensive to islam the movie didn't go over well in states now run by islamist after post revolution polls in egypt and tunisia. u.s. embassies were left in shambles as flags burned and freedom of speech was back on the debate table where tonight the film was banned in some countries like russia and defended by others like the states as a protected life of expression rights not awarded to whistleblowers like julian assange and who had a busy year and here he was granted political asylum by ecuador after being released on bail while the awaiting a british court's decision on his extradition to sweden for most of twenty twelve assigned to remain under house arrest but still managed to find a way to leave the can change the world tomorrow his groundbreaking exclusive interview show premiered on our teens and always on sat down with guests shunned by

the mainstream media like has the last house on the throne law and internet freedom on his visit to the site where marks the future of the internet i think it's no journalist with the salt in the world working today has not used a wiki leaks cable whether it be at the lowest level of covering their local health center to the idea of schools cation let alone geo politics still many journalists slammed the songes work on r t and he continues to be a man the west and mainstream media love to hate while he remains holed up at the ecuadorian embassy in london fearing u.k. officials will grab him the moment he steps outside. protests ripped across europe in two thousand and twelve as the euro crisis worsened leaving many no choice but to go out onto the streets so many people are becoming desperate people are gaga. angrier and angrier spain had millions on the

street at a time demanding the government stop cuts and demos continued in greece who got a forty four billion euro bailout the masses were met with heavy handed policing in most countries across the e.u. which was awarded a nobel peace prize in twenty trials i am right. they ultimately if there are too many protests won't even be able to afford the policemen on the streets and therefore we could actually end up not so much with a violent reaction from government but there's actually a danger of an arcade because government itself may break down the crowd is. not the case in the us where the occupy movement lost momentum of this year corporate back media and authorities managed to dull demonstrations demanding economic equality and responsibility is one of a party that there was you know you wait for occupy to expand from its needs and from that. you know usually you write it by the elites as

a bunch of anarchist story or students who know how to sing better to do it is to organize themselves politically something the group is promising and twenty thirteen with some predicting the old ws movement might have better luck in europe . russia saw protests this year leading up to and after vladimir putin was elected for a third time as president but not nearly as big as what we saw at the end of twenty a lot of them i think the demonstrations in russia were motivated by frustration the demonstrators had the care political goal which was to discredit the reputation of a christian or even to russia knowing that those could be done you know russian going to win the election they had no choice they had no possibility of beating them in an election so they tried to their strategy was instead to discredit the east in the eyes of the west just before putin's inauguration protests in central moscow turned violent for the first time in three. an opposition movement began to rally

against the arrests were made in both protesters and police reported injuries several demonstrators face court hearings on charges of inciting mass public disorder and a dozen more trials will carry on in the new year with the opposition claiming this is all part of a kremlin clamp down on their movement but putin's reelection and protests didn't get nearly as much attention as this. was the riots rock riot on the altar of christ the savior and the scandal that followed made world headlines took over the blog a sphere and had celebrities like madonna just sending them to the russian orthodox church she was outraged. there is no defense in this case it's simple p.r. lawyers on cooking up on ali feel they're working towards the brand in order to capitalize on it in the future and it's worked some of the groups girls got two years in jail for the stunt which was criticized by the west as too harsh the story

remained in the headlines for weeks on end leaving little room for stories like this. thank you very much the way u.s. presidential candidate jill stein and her running mate arrested for protesting outside a debate for top party only candidates obama and romney the american system is designed to eliminate political opposition like some of the you know dictatorships that we criticize the debate makes a mockery of our democracy despite being on the ballot in a not states to technically win stine and other candidates were not allowed to debate and got almost no coverage in the lead up to elections aren't you less networks instead third party candidates only chance to debate live on television here was for marty's washington studio i think our founding fathers would be spinning it in their graves if they could see this. in line with homes and part.

obama won the election but his work is cut out for along with other world leaders to be here to calm a rough economy growing discontent and conflicts either standing still or raging while he's now a part. but he can tell us what script to your attention most on r.t. this year post a tweet with hash tag r.t. recall your message for to hearing your thoughts reading some of them out during our coverage as we approach midnight here in moscow also on line few at the moment britain's got to busting doctors are being told to take a taste of their own medicine on a website now too many medics are piling on the pounds. example by having gastric bands and ditching junk food. so that calories are slashed off the british medics menu over the english channel. over that king of the carbs the

french fry both belgium and france claim it's their invention head on line to see who's most convincing. one hundred thousand more people could die in syria over the next year if the government and the opposition don't start talking a chilling prediction came from the un's international peace envoy brahimi also warned that the country would become a failed state ruled by warlords unless diplomacy is given a chance is proposed peace plan involves forming a transitional government based on agreement between authorities and the rebels but the opposition is dismissing the initiative saying one cease fire or join any talks and this president assad goes mohammed a member of the dung of organization believes the rebels position is being

instigated from abroad. what should be mixed is a wide dialogue between all syrians but as we see the superpowers in the world through the pressure of the opposition dialogue and this mean more and more arms or it's getting the opposition have a big arsenal. that we have gone there for a long while and it's been the after the and it's quite think you really are coming from the border of. the borders with jordan are slightly off it as well and it's obvious that the international powers the western powers are interested in this work in smuggling and. in boxes like turkey or some part of doing that if the job. or the world updates for you now a series of explosions in iraq have killed at least ten people and wounded more

than forty others seven members of the same family were killed in the largest explosion in the town of musayyib south of baghdad two more died in here local police there say the attack was aimed at shia muslims in the town and last has also been reported in cook in the kurdish held area to the north of the country. u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton has been admitted to hospital after a blood clot was found in a medical exam she'll spend the next couple of days being treated for the condition which is thought to have been caused by concussion she suffered not long ago after falling home where sixty five year old is due to enter a ten year of america's chief diplomat next year. and activists in bahrain of a lashed out at the seven year prison terms police officers convicted of beating a protester to death last year campaigners assisted was torture and that the court was too lenient and the government demonstrations in bahrain started early in the twenty eleven and at least sixty people have since died in clashes. well next

people of bell and his guests slug it out in cross talk myself to break. the mighty volga that runs deep through the russian soul has provided inspiration for songs and poems and is the country's main north south artery and decades ago schumann ingenuity connected it to the dawn river to the west the volga dawn canal is an engineering marvel within a day a vessel can pass the canals thirteen blocks ten million tons of shipping does so every year. another concrete giant is this finished fifty years ago it's the biggest hydroelectric plant in europe and powers the local city of volgograd and sends lots more electricity to moscow hydroelectric plant behind me is

a potent example of how much the volga can provide but harnessing the revelent this isn't without its cost. fishermen have been watching fish stocks for years they see the slow damage the downing of the river has done especially to russia's prized sturgeon the source of caviar put on the president of the hydroelectric plant has done significant damage because it stopped fish swimming up river to the spawning grounds. within a year all these houses would have gone fallen into the river depending on how many of the hydroelectric plants turbines are on the water level can change suddenly and dramatically too suddenly for the banks to absorb. control of the river flow by the plant has made building on the shoulders front plane more attractive serious floods are less likely but the water that is put into the drains is taken away from the fish that need it now but last the voice of the voters of color jay might start being heard.